Activist revives US academic freedom fears

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng speaks to journalists following an appearance in New York on May 3.

Photo: Reuters

Charges by a top activist that New York University dismissed him due to Chinese influence have added fuel to concerns over Beijing’s educational clout that critics say hurts US academic freedom.

Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠), one of China’s most prominent human rights campaigners, who dramatically escaped house arrest last year, has accused the private university of surrendering to “unrelenting pressure” from Beijing.

New York University has adamantly denied the charges and said that it has been generous to Chen — providing him free education, English lessons, accommodation and family support — but only planned a one-year fellowship.

However, critics note that the university later this year starts operation of a Shanghai campus. Chinese students paying full tuition are highly prized, and New York University is the third-largest US recipient of foreign students.

US Representative Chris Smith, who heads the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights, said that New York University controlled Chen’s movements and tried to monitor the congressman’s conversations with the activist.

“That is not the way you treat a world-class human rights defender who has suffered torture and every other deprivation to combat abuse in China. It really is a black mark against NYU,” Smith said.

Smith said that US universities faced a “huge systemic problem.”

“I have no problem with higher education having a constructive engagement with China as long as you don’t gag human rights defenders. Frankly, you should be providing them with space; otherwise, wittingly or unwittingly, you’re enabling a dictatorship,” he said.

Smith is a passionate opponent of abortion who has campaigned for years against China’s one-child policy. Chen, a self-taught lawyer who has been blind since infancy, exposed widespread forced abortions under the policy.

Chen spent four years in prison before being put under house arrest, where he said that he and his wife suffered severe beatings for daring to keep speaking out.

New York University’s supporters said that they wanted to shield Chen, who does not speak English and suddenly moved from house arrest in small-town China to Manhattan, from politics in the US, where abortion is a divisive issue.

New York University professor Jerome Cohen, a leading authority on Chinese law who mentored Chen, said that no political refugee — “not even Albert Einstein” — has been treated better by a US academic institution than Chen.

Chen scaled the walls of his home and was driven in a getaway car to the safety of the US embassy on the eve of a visit by then-US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, setting off a diplomatic showdown.

Harold Koh, who was Clinton’s top legal adviser, said that New York University agreed to offer Chen a temporary home “without hesitation, and without concern for any other factor, other than doing the right thing.”

“To cast doubt on NYU’s generosity now will discourage other universities from taking similarly courageous steps,” said Koh, a former dean of Yale Law School.

Experts said that China’s influence on US universities was complicated, with US institutions sensitive to charges of outside pressure, but also eager for outside support at a time that traditional funding sources are tight.

The stakes are especially high for foreign academics studying China, who need to publish to advance within academic circles and hence need to ensure visas and access to research in the growing Asian power.